Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Merry Tabaski!

Yesterday was the Muslim festival Tabaski. Tabaski is probably the most important day in Islam. It celebrates the day Abraham took Ishmael (note this is where the major split between Islam and the Jewish/Christian tradition happens) to Mt. Moriah to sacrifice him. God spares Ishmael though by providing a ram.

So what do we do on Tabaski? We eat a lot of sheep. I probably ate my weight in sheep. My friend Racy was gracious enough to let me tag along with her to attend two parties. The first was a traditional Malian fete. They killed FIVE sheep. Our first course was the liver and heart, and, i'll be honest, it was my favorite thing i ate all day. It was soooo (surprisingly) good. Then we followed that up with sheep meat galore with some fonio (some sort of grainish thing that's like cous cous).

After that party we went to the head of the Millenium Challange Corporation (google it) and had a nice dinner there. It was mostly americans and embassy folk (even the Deputy Chief of Missions was there). It was lovely and the food was delicious, but I was still full. I did, however, indulge in a large bowl of fruit and some orange juice.

There are a couple pictures floating about, but they weren't on my camera, if i can locate them I will put them up and let you know.

So Happy Tabaski even if it is a Heathen holiday ;) bwhahahahahaha!

Gypsy on!

1 comment:

Wendy... said...

Every time I see this title, it sounds out in my head like it's being said by a southerner - kind of like instead of saying 'tabasco' it came out 'tabaski.' Makes me laugh! Love you.